Posts

+Egan: The pandemic is a wake-up call to our society.

Image
If I'm honest, finding it really hard to love the Church at the moment. I feel like a large part of my life - the sacramental part of my life - has been taken away from me without any explanation, substitution or warning. It really feels like the bishops have closed down Catholicism, withdrawn from every day life and have made little or no effort to engage, encourage or provide any spiritual substance for the laity in the absence of a public Catholic life. The slack, thank God, has been taken up manfully by so many of our priests who have acted swiftly to provide online liturgies and I think that people could be exposed more than ever before in their lives to adoration, benediction, the divine office and Mass.

Meanwhile, on social media, many of the Catholics I so admire and know have a real and devout faith seem much more interested in fighting each other than those betraying the Church. 
Despite all this, I never find it hard to love Jesus. So I speak to Him & tell him my w…
Post a Comment
Read more

Do not be afraid!

Have the courage to pray for a miracle!
Fr Hugh, the Abbot of the Norbertimes gives us a wonderful message, that the Norbertines are taking all of us to the altar at this difficult time!

Post a Comment
Read more

What good can come from this?

Image
I'm not blogging much as we all struggle to face the encroaching COVID19 pandemic. I am extremely busy at work and worried about the situation for all the same reasons I'm sure you are. You're all in my prayers.

I don't believe this is a time of division, or pointing out frustrations or weakness, but a time of unity and solidarity.

Brian Holdsworth puts it well in this video.

Our decisions are based on trust. Social media only serves to exacerbate our political polarisation – people are so sure that their “side” is right and the other “side” are idiots. As this continues, we lose our shared humanity. COVID19 does not discriminate between right & left: we are all susceptible to the same suffering, we all share our humanity. Can we see people on all sides of the divide that we thought mattered so much as our brothers and sisters? Compassion means to suffer with someone else. Like it or not, we are all going to go through this together. Will we come out of this test …
Post a Comment
Read more

Corona Virus Lock Down - A Bishop's Response

Image
As Northern Italy goes into a state of lock-down over Corona Virus Catholics are left with something of a dilemma. The local "ordinanze" (decrees) include the prohibition of "religious" gatherings, and getting ahead of the public authorities, several dioceses in the region have suspended religious activities.
Obviously this is a sensible & reasonable precaution against further spreading the virus, but one bishop has given an exemplary response as Rorate Caelireports.

The Bishop of Pavia, in Lombardy, Corrado Sanguineti, shows that is possible. His pastoral letter on the matter is a lesson in common sense, and in particular I would draw your attention to this paragraph:While unfortunately having to suspend the celebration of the Holy Masses until further notice, I order that Churches remain open, for the personal prayer of the faithful, and I ask that, even on weekdays, priests celebrate daily Mass, behind closed doors, praying in the name of the whole community, …
1 comment
Read more

Is this a papal dodge?

Image
The Papal Posse are always worth a watch.

In this episode, they discuss the synod document.

Fr Gerald Murray says it was a happy day when Querida Amazonia was released because the synod asked for women deacons and married priests and the Holy Father did not grant those things, he gave an answer which was to pray for vocations.

Progressive Catholics are angry and bitter, their reaction, that the pope "lacked courage" is because he set up people's expectations in that regard.

Fr Murray: the Amazonian synod was first raised by the pope in the context of ordaining viri probati, naturally there were therefore a lot of expectations.

Robert Royal thinks the pope wants to leave the door open with his request for the faithful to read the Final Document. Baldisseri says clearly in the press conference that exhortation does not speak about the approval of the final document, just presentation, therefore it does not have magisterial authority. In this Baldesseri contradicted Czerny…
Post a Comment
Read more

Vatican: Raids on curial official's home over luxury Chelsea property development

Image
Remember when, on a papal flight, the Pope called it "good administration" to sink $220m of Peter's Pence money into a luxury property development in Chelsea, London? Well, it appears investigators in the Vatican disagree.

Breaking news from CNA: Vatican official Monsignor Perlasca has been raided over the London property deal. Perlasca was the former head of the administrative office, First Section, Secretariat of State.

CNA report:

Vatican authorities have seized documents and computers belonging to a senior curial official as part of an investigation into financial misconduct, the Holy See announced on Tuesday.

In a statement issued Feb. 18, the Vatican press office confirmed that investigators had raided the office and home of Msgr. Alberto Perlasca, the former head of the administrative office at the First Section of the Secretariat of State. The raid is part of an ongoing investigation into financial misconduct by officials at the secretariat.

“This morning, as p…
Post a Comment
Read more

The Amazonian Dust Settles...

Image
As the Amazonian dust begins to settle, we can begin to see a little more clearly what has been going on, and the preliminary perspective confirms my initial instincts that this is a victory for the Church of Jesus Christ.

The Pope & his progressive supporters have spent two years now building expectations around controversial topics like the ordination of married men, the abandonment of priestly celibacy & female ordination. These are not new topics, they are all the same old progressive topics pursued by Bergoglio and the men around him for decades (perhaps best illustrated from a parochial UK perspective by this recent post).

It seemed very clear that the Amazon was going to be used as a Trojan Horse to push these ideas into the mainstream. The arguments were made that the remote Amazonian communities lacked ministers to administer the sacraments, one nun at the synod even said she was already hearing confessions! The Austrian bishop who seemed to have almost free reign at…
Post a Comment
Read more